Afterthought

It was a terribly confusing day. I woke up cold. I turned the heating on. A couple of hours later my flatmate yelled at me to turn the heating off. My predicament was being discussed on the BBC Breakfast show. I was informed, by the expert on the show, that women feel colder than men because they have more surface area, and for some other convoluted evolutionary reason. I recorded this gem of information for an occasion that might call for it. I heard some rumours about some political fun. There was a big summit conference on in Washington. The Indian PM and the Pakistani President had sneaked out to grab a coffee. The moment was awkward. If Sidhu were commenting on the situation, he would have mentioned something about cutting the tension with a knife. The pinnacle of politeness that he is, the Indian PM offered, “Latte?” The Pakistani President nodded. They got talking, and shared notes on the best mughlai restaurant in town. A lot can happen over coffee, I suppose. Occupy...

I repeated to myself, 'I'm Agastya's man through and through." I walked up to her, apologized for being late. I had been playing a game of Solitaire at work, trying to delay this tryst, reminding myself of the virtues of silence, gravity and iteration. We spoke of banal topics; the weather, the cricket match, the royal wedding and of the quantity of tamarind in the perfect sambhar. We walked on. She told me of their quarrel. Agastya had told me about this earlier. He was guilty. It wasn't the occasional slip, he didn't get carried away the once. It was calculated. He had flirted and courted and toyed. Agastya could do that without thinking. He was guilty. He had asked me if he should tell her all. I had asked him not to. "Arjun. He's not lying, is he?" I smiled and then dropped my voice to answer her question.

Shankar was dozing off. The train screeched to a halt at a tiny station. The PA system informed us that we had reached Balham. A family with three young kids got on and took the seats opposite us. Shankar stared at them with disapproval. He had stuffed himself with rice and sambhar, and was happily nodding off in accordance with the Madrasi custom until this family with three very young kids showed up. The mother yelled at the youngest one to take his mouth off the window sill. The father was continuing a 'guess-what-I-thought-of' game with the older kids. "Is it an animal?" "No, it's not." "Is it a bird?" "Nope. Try again." "Is it food, daddy?" "Yes" "Curry!" Shankar burst out laughing.

"There's nothing wrong with the blueberry pie. Just... people make other choices. You can't blame the blueberry pie, just... no one wants it." She hung up. I was telling her about my Christmas plans. I was telling her that I planned to stock up on food, beer and cigarettes. I could go on and tell you a tragic story about how I couldn't run any more because of the cigarettes, but I'd be lying. Cigarettes never bothered my running. I was improving, and would definitely finish the spring marathon in a respectable time. No, it wasn't the cigarettes. How self-centred could I be! No, maybe it was Justin. She had broken up with Justin a few weeks back. I would never see her point. She didn't expect me to. We had agreed not to talk about it. I couldn't help bringing it up every other time. She had been patient and had politely changed the topic every time. Justin was staying over at my place for Christmas. She hung up because I was telling her how gr...

"I met my girl at Woolwich Pier Beneath the big cranes standing And oh, the love I felt for her It passed all understanding" Her hair brushed my face. The perfume was sweet and poignant; nostalgic and refreshingly new. "Took her sailing on the river Flow sweet river, flow London town was mine to give her Sweet Thames flow softly" We had tea from the shack outside College. We drank in the sweet warm liquid and we drank in the view of College. Both spread warmth. I took her hand in mine. My hands were always warmer. "Made the Thames into a crown Flow sweet river, flow Made a brooch of Silver town Sweet Thames flow softly" It was a pity she wasn't around while I ran for her. I couldn't tell her that I was running for her. At the finish line, I realized I hadn't run for her. Instead, I had run for the father and daughter who were now alone, the man in the wheelchair who was now alone, and I ran for the leprechaun who was now al...

“I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth - certainly greater than sex, although sex isn't too bad either”~Harold Pinter I felt like a fool as I walked towards the pitch. It had been a brilliant series until the last hour. We had exceeded expectations. We started with a relatively young team; inexperienced, fresh and unassuming. Our first round matches were easy wins. No one noticed us until we were in the finals against the Seminare team. I was booed, but I knew Aparna’s voice wasn’t adding to the chorus. I would have been surprised if I had known that she was in the stands, sitting quietly, probably praying. The Seminare team was at its best this year. Most of their players were in their last year before they had to give up cricket and start worrying about their school-leaving exams. They embarrassed and humiliated every team. They were playing the finals at home. I first met Aparna at the inter-school quiz. I was surprised Sem...